Is Winning Everything Or Are There More Benefits In The Lessons Of Losing?
At the end of a sports game, someone
or a team emerges as the winner and another as the loser. It may feel like the
end of the world for the losing team, but a brilliant coach will help them to
see the advantages of their loss. Don’t be surprised that we said, “advantages
of loss”. There’s nothing that is all bad and there are pros and cons to
everything, including something like losing that already seems like a loss.
Winning is great, but it isn’t
everything in the end. Lawful self-defense or protecting the weak and
vulnerable due to imminent threats of survival may be exceptions where one
believes winning becomes everything.
There is also so much to learn from
losing that winning will never teach you. Looking at the advantages and
disadvantages of winning and losing may help you to see that this idea of
winning not always being so great and losing not being the end of the world are
not so weird after all. This is in no way discouraging people from wanting to
win in life, but putting winning and losing into their proper perspectives.
Advantages Of Winning
• There is nothing more
valuable than feeling good about yourself and your achievements and winning
does that to you. It is a great confidence boost, and it becomes a point of
reference in your past a time when you did everything right or effectively.
• Winning gives you a sense of
validation. That is because you know that you did everything right or
effectively, your methods and process were right or effective, and the result
of your hard work is your success or win. It provides you with a blueprint of
success.
• These positive feelings of
experiencing a win can keep you excited and motivated to continue the game and
build momentum.
Disadvantages Of Winning
The idea that there are disadvantages
to winning sounds ridiculous right? But just hear us out:
• Eventually, winning can become boring. You may be thinking that you'd never tire of winning. Yet, there are no more challenges to push you (higher or further), nothing
that you’re fighting for, and you can tend to become complacent in your
actions. Yes, you can keep pursuing another win, but what happens if you lose that "winner's high"?
• When you’re content with just
a win, learning can become much harder because you've limited your desire to learn (more) or don’t have
to work hard anymore. When these feelings set in, you’re more vulnerable to
developing bad habits that can prevent further wins and that can set you back (at
the beginning).
• Winning can give you a false
sense of your abilities and this can be detrimental. It can cause you to
overestimate your abilities or underestimate any opponents. Remember because
you won does not necessarily mean you are the best. There may be bigger and
better challenges or opponents that you have not yet faced. So, if you start
believing that your win is a result of how great you are, you may be setting
yourself up for failure.
Advantages Of Losing
Hardly anyone likes to lose
especially if receiving rewards or recognition is a part of winning. So, the
idea that losing has advantages sounds absurd and is not something that a lot
of people would like to consider, but let’s look at it this way:
• Loss is simply a part of life.
So, thinking that you won’t suffer loss at any time is simply foolhardy. Losing
is not the end game, but a means to an end because it helps you to build
character and can help you improve your mindset, sportsmanship, and skills. How
you respond to losing is what builds your character.
• Losing can force you to
evaluate or re-evaluate yourself to find what doesn’t work and figure out how
to fix it. It can motivate you to learn, think, and strategize for the future.
A loss can hurt, but if you force yourself to pick up some lessons from your
loss, you will emerge even better than the last. How many times have you seen a
team losing during a game have a comeback and win the game?
Disadvantages Of Losing
• Simply put, the disadvantage
of losing is losing. You may ask yourself, ‘What is fun about being on the
losing side?’ I’m sure no team has ever considered losing to be a great feat.
• Losing can make you lose
interest in an activity when you can be focusing on getting better to enjoy the
activity even more.
• Losing can make you feel bad and losing constantly can kill your confidence as well. No one wants to feel this way.
Learning To Deal With Loss And Failure
We have all seen our favorite
athletes cry from winning and shout in excitement when they win a game. We have
also seen them acting out in vexation from a loss, yelling, sometimes even
breaking things, and generally displaying the less attractive side of
themselves.
This is to show that the idea of
winning and losing comes with rather strong emotions and learning to manage
these emotions correctly and gracefully is what matters to help you build
character and human connections with your opponents and others around you.
Winning might make you feel good (temporarily), the fact that you could beat
the game and your opponent can bring about a strong ego boost and sudden burst
of confidence.
On the other hand, losing might feel
out of control. The realization that you weren’t as good as you thought can
make you feel more vulnerable than you care to admit. The worst thing about
losing is that no matter how many times you win, it is the big losses that may stay
with you. You may think about them. Losing can emphasize your flaws and weaknesses in your mind. This can give you motive, drive, and a clear objective to improve and push
more for winning.
However, how you handle these emotions is key. So, consider practicing losing gracefully and respectfully before you take any loss so that you are not mentally defeated if you take a loss. While learning to lose, giving up is the only real loss, because, at that point, you are giving up the opportunities for growth and development through strategies and success is no longer an option. So, never give up if you lose.
Conclusion
“The winner takes it all” is not
completely an accurate statement because while the winner gets rewarded with
accolades, trophies, medals, and of course, an ego boost, the loser can learn
to master their skills and techniques through continuous training and
eventually step up their game to unimagined levels.
Sure, losing sucks and everyone wants
to win, but it is important that you don’t get carried away with the emotions of a
loss and instead find the lessons in life that are better than winning and use
them as learning opportunities that will then guarantee your success whether
you win or lose.
Remember that in the world we live
in, success is subjective, and neither winning nor losing is everything. Real
success is when winners and losers gain something valuable and positive aside
from trophies, medals, recognition, etc. and learn valuable lessons, experience self-growth, self-development, and build human connections.
(Disclaimer: Nothing in this article should be construed to be legal, business, or therapeutic advice.)
References
Winning Isn’t
Everything: Sometimes It’s Good To Lose
10 reasons why winning
and losing are important for children